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Transferable Skills

June 27, 2011 — Carrie

So, I’m told that there’s a gambling phenomenon known as the “dice mechanic”. This is a person who can throw the dice in such a way as to make their odds of winning at craps better. Since craps is a fairly low-margin game for the house anyway, the player improving hir odds even a little can be quite lucrative.

I wonder if this is a skill that can be learned. Because I know someone who can flip a coin to land as he likes–I once watched him do it 20 times in a row, with me calling before he flipped; it seems like a simpler version of the same skill. I can’t do it, myself, and it might be that the process depends on the fact that a coin has only two choices; he might not be able to discriminate among six sides. Be interesting to test.